


Later That Night

by JeweloftheWorld



Series: Castaway AU [1]
Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: Bill Cipher is a Jerk, Canon Divergence - s02e04 Sock Opera, Demonic Possession, Dipper Pines Is In Danger, Gen, Hospitalization, Journal 3 (Gravity Falls), Stan Pines Needs A Hug, Threats of Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-14
Updated: 2020-08-14
Packaged: 2021-03-10 21:47:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,531
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28254144
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JeweloftheWorld/pseuds/JeweloftheWorld
Summary: After Glove Story ends prematurely with a nasty accident that lands the twins in the hospital, Stan tries to piece together what really happened and finds a disturbing note.
Relationships: Dipper Pines & Stan Pines, Mabel Pines & Stan Pines, Wendy Corduroy & Stan Pines
Series: Castaway AU [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2069733
Kudos: 6





	Later That Night

**Author's Note:**

> This serves as an intro or prologue for my Castaway AU. It might not make much sense if you haven't read Journal 3.
> 
> Content Warnings: Mention of suspected drug abuse, Mention of ER and hospitalization, Implied self-harm, Threatened suicide (-ish, it's a possession situation)  
> Don't worry, it's all super mild.

> I gave you the world, you threw it away
> 
> Leaving these broken pieces behind you
> 
> \- Dear Evan Hansen

Stanley Pines breathed a sigh of relief. Dipper and Mabel were secured in their respective hospital rooms in stable condition. He would have preferred that they share a room, that’s what they would want, but the emergency ward wasn’t set up that way. The doctor claimed their injuries weren’t severe, that nothing should prevent them from leaving in a few days. Kids could be surprisingly resilient; that fall had easily been 15-20 feet and not a broken bone between them. Everything should be fine. They should wake up soon. He had told their parents to come down for nothing. 

If only he believed it.

He walked out the hospital doors, humming, trying to feel upbeat and confident about the future. Everything was looking up. The kids would be fine and if everything went well, they’d have another Grunkle to visit by the end of the summer. He hated leaving before they woke up but Soos and Wendy had agreed to sit with them while he went back to the Shack to get some supplies. This summer would have been a wreck without those two. Soos was always willing to look after the kids or the Shack if something happened and thanks to Wendy, Dipper actually had friends.

When he reached the Stanley Mobile, he couldn’t find his keys. He panicked for a minute before noticing that they were still in the ignition. Had he been in that much of a rush to get Mabel inside? 

Chastizing himself for the careless behavior, he pulled out of the ER parking lot, ignoring the speed limit as he drove to the edge of town. He figured he should make a stop at the theater on his way back. Candy, Grenda, and their families had volunteered to clean up the mess but it would still be a good idea to check in on them. 

As he drove, he let his thoughts wander. Something wasn’t right. Something he couldn’t quite grasp. It had been bothering him all night but now he had time to time to think. Hadn’t he been looking for 3 people when he first rushed the stage? Why? 

He had watched Dipper and Mabel fall from the catwalk, who else would have been injured? The cake had fallen exactly on center stage, any stage crew could have easily dodged into the wings. 

Despite his worry, he smiled a little, proud of all the theater lingo he had picked up from Mabel over the past week. She’d put her all into this little production, even doing most of the puppetry herself.

The car screeched to a stop. His heart pounded as he tried to catch his breath, startled by his own action. 

If the twins were both on the catwalk, who was controlling the puppets? In any other town, he would have dismissed it, but this was Gravity Falls where weird things had weirder causes.

He turned around, deciding to visit the theater first.

* * *

Candy and Grenda had already made significant progress on clean up. He remembered to thank them before questioning them about the stage situation before the accident. They confirmed that the accident had happened mid-scene with only hand puppets and Waddles on stage. (Stan was glad to be reminded that Waddles was in the theater; he could take him back to the Shack.) 

Candy seemed to think that Mabel was supposed to be puppetmaster for that scene while Grenda insisted that Dipper had taken over at the last second. No one could remember seeing either twin in the role after the Intermission, or anyone for that matter. 

Who was this mystery puppeteer and how had they escaped both injury and scrutiny? 

Walking out onto the stage, he saw that the crash site was untouched. Sure enough, the cake had landed right where the puppeteer should have been. Crouching down, he collected the puppets meant to represent himself, Dipper, and Mabel, wondering if his great-niece would want them. 

As he struggled to stand he noticed something else. A pile of ash? That seemed out of place. He walked over to it and pulled out what appeared to be a monocle. 

“Must have been part of some puppet.” he thought absently as he pulled out another relatively intact piece from the pile. It was badly charred, maybe leather. He rubbed at it, trying to find some marking. His finger met metal at the corner. 

This was the cover of one of his brother’s journals. 

Did this charred mess have something to do with their fall?

Whatever had happened, he could find out later, for now, he didn’t want the wrong people stumbling across a journal, even destroyed. 

He grabbed a plastic bag and pulled out any undestroyed fragments from the ash pile. With the bag and a pile of Dipper’s clothing he’d found backstage, he headed back out to the car, Waddles close at his heels. 

Again on the road, Stan remembered something else, something he had dismissed as a trick of the light at the time. When the kids first hit the ground, Dipper had stood up and grabbed something from Mabel before collapsing, but there was something else too. Stan was convinced he had seen blue flames engulf the boy’s hand.

* * *

He pulled up to the Mystery Shack and, after letting Waddles inside, went into his office. After setting down the puppets, he grabbed all his paperwork on the children in case the hospital or their parents needed it. Then he went up to the kids’ attic room to grab a few spare outfits. 

The room was a dump, littered with papers full of crossed-out words, puppets, and craft supplies. His shoulders slumped at the sight of Dipper’s massive pile of unwashed clothes. Stan knew his own hygiene standards weren’t great but this was ridiculous. Had he washed anything this summer? 

Well, if he was going to be a slob then he could just wear a hospital gown. Stan collected 3 sets of clothes for Mabel, a little unsure about the undergarments. Then grabbed a stuffed animal, her diary, and an unfinished knitting project. He tucked it all into her backpack. Sighing, he gathered Dipper’s laundry into a basket and brought it downstairs. Stan certainly didn’t want the blame if their parents decided to come over and pack them up. He wondered what they would make of some of their children’s souvenirs. 

After getting a load started, he headed into the basement lab, bringing the journal fragments with him. He did a quick inspection of the portal and surrounding computers to make sure they were still running properly, then carefully checked the three journals in his possession, one a nearly identical facsimile of the one Dipper usually carried. Even with the copy, the destroyed, third journal made him ache just a little. He knew how much those Journals meant to his brother and Dipper. For the nth time that summer he considered telling the kids, maybe even asking for their help, and Soos’s. With the journal gone Dipper might start doing some desperate things to find the information he wanted. Why not just give it to him? 

The last thing Stan wanted was for Dipper to idolize Poindexter or worse, try to emulate him. It was bad enough when “the Author” was a mysterious stranger, how would he react if he knew they were family?

Ford was in a desperate state when Stan first arrived in Gravity Falls. He never wanted to see the kids like that. Still, maybe now was the time.

He went back upstairs, considering his options while got himself a shower and a change of clothes. He took Mabel’s backpack and a few other items out to the car. When he opened the door to the backseat, something small and white on the floorboards caught his eye. He picked it up, hoping it might be some undamaged piece of the now destroyed journal. 

> NOTE to self: Possessing people is hilarious! To think of all the sensations I've been missing out on-- burning, stabbing, drowning. It's like a buffet tray of fun! Once I destroy that journal, I'll enjoy giving this body its grand finale-- by throwing it off the water tower! Best of all, people will just think Pine Tree lost his mind, and his mental form will wander in the mindscape forever. Want to join him, Shooting Star?

Reading it sent a chill through his spine, even if he didn’t fully understand. Possession, masochism, threats of murder. It was sickening and maddeningly vague. He didn’t know who Pine Tree and Shooting Star were or who wrote the note but one thing was clear. Whatever had happened tonight was done with the explicit goal of destroying his brother’s journal. 

Stan wanted to shred the paper that instant but resisted and carefully tucked it away in his wallet. Instead, he started pacing, trying to sort out everything in his head. 

Someone bad had tried to destroy his brother’s journal and succeeded. 

No, they hadn’t, not really, there was still a copy in the basement. 

Would they come after the other journals? 

He should keep backups of all of them just in case. 

Someone had been possessed. 

Who? 

Well, who had been in the car? 

Himself, Mabel, Candy, Grenda, Waddles, and, briefly, Manly Dan, when he helped carry out the kids. 

The “Note to self” implied spontaneity but it ended by addressing “Shooting Star.” 

The writer may have intentionally put it in the car. The windows had been down after all. That expanded the list of potential hosts. 

Was someone out there still possessed? 

That stopped him cold. 

He ran into his office and dialed the GFPD, asking them to keep an eye on the water tower, warning that there may be a jumper tonight or tomorrow. 

Hoping that call didn’t come back to bite him, he resumed his pacing, now occasionally side-stepping a hyper Waddles. The dreaded thought came:

What if the host had been Dipper or Mabel? 

Dipper was always wearing that hat with the pine tree on it.

That gave him another idea. 

He examined the Mabel puppet he had grabbed from the theater. Sure enough, the puppet’s sweater had a Shooting Star stitched onto the front. 

So Dipper, or at least his body, might have destroyed the journal. Maybe they had fallen when Mabel tried to stop him. 

If he was right, whatever they were dealing with had not only destroyed the journal, it had threatened the lives of both children and left the proof of that just sitting in his car.

For a moment Stan was torn, all his instincts telling him to race back to the hospital to protect them. He took a deep, calming breath and opted to pick up the phone instead. After digging through some papers, he found the number he was looking for. It picked up after two rings.

“Hello, that you Mr. Pines? Everything alright?” a slightly groggy voice responded.

“Wendy, yeah, it’s Stan. You still sitting with Dipper?” he asked, trying to hide his panic.

“Oh, yeah,” she muttered, stifling a yawn. “You coming back soon? Dad wants to know when I’ll be home.”

“Sure, I’ll be right over, but… uh… first, did you notice anything odd about Dipper this afternoon?”

“Ugh, you bet,” Wendy answered with an audible sneer. “He started like, actually flirting with me. I mean, yeah, we all knew he had a crush on me and stuff but I thought he was over that, and, well, Dipper doesn’t exactly flirt. But tonight was super awkward, I mean, he was practically in my lap at the theater. I tried to ignore it but it was kinda creepy. You don’t think he was on drugs or something? He’s been real stressed the past week.”

“Or something,” Stan said noncommittally, unsure of how accepting Wendy would be of something like possession. “Look can you just keep an eye on him? Not that that’s not what you’re already doing, just, don’t let him do anything stupid if he wakes up. Might wanna tell Soos the same about Mabel.”

“Sure thing Mr. Pines,” Wendy said. “Hey, uh, do you really think this was just an accident? Both of those two are into some pretty creepy shit. I mean just last week- well, nevermind.” As much as Stan wanted to press her about what happened last week, he didn’t want to hear anything that might make him lose his composure. 

“I think it’s entirely possible they just tripped over their own feet,” Stan lied. “But it could also be something a lot more sinister. Look, thanks for looking after the kid for me, I’ll be there soon. Did you need a ride home? It’s already dark out.”

“Seriously it’s no problem, Dipper’s a friend, even if he can be weird,” Wendy claimed. “Dad’s all ready to pick me up so that’s no problem.” He made a mental note to send the Corduroys something nice, though he couldn’t think what. Maybe he could try to find some plaidypuses. 

“Alright Wendy, see you soon.”

“See ya, Stan.”

Stan put down the receiver, rubbing the bridge of his nose. His earlier thoughts of telling the kids the truth mocked him. Just carrying Poindexter’s precious journal had put them in danger, put them in the hospital, working on the portal was out of the question. He hoped that, whatever this thing was, it would be satisfied that the journal was destroyed, out of their reach.

Clenching and unclenching his fists, Stan remembered that less than two weeks ago, the journal had been out of Dipper’s hands. He’d only given it back because he didn’t want the kid snooping around looking for it. Maybe he should have explained, at least told the kids something about Stanford. 

Just thinking about that conversation twisted his stomach into knots. Not telling them when the portal was dead and would probably never open was one thing. Lying about it when there was a real possibility his brother would return before the end of summer was a different matter entirely. If he had told them, he could have explained at least part of what happened to Ford, try to impress on them how dangerous this town was, that even their precious Author had been driven to near insanity by what he found. 

Of course, there was the other option. It made him horribly sad but maybe it was time to send the kids home, past time. The zombie incident should have been his sign that Dipper was just too much like his brother. 

Sighing, he locked up and went back to the car. Their parents would be here tomorrow. There was no guarantee that whoever was responsible, probably someone from Ford’s past, would stop going after the kids. 

If they had destroyed the journal, it was possible that they were just as determined as he was to keep the kids away from that past. Hopefully, Piedmont was far enough.

He sped off back to the hospital, already debating how to break the bad news to the kids when they woke up.

**Author's Note:**

> SLQH WUHH ZRQ’W EH JRLQJ DQBZKHUH
> 
> Hopefully, I'll post more of this AU soon. My chapters are very unorganized so I'll probably post different arcs as separate works. I have two more Dipper oriented ready to go. I just need to post. 
> 
> Update: The first couple of chapters following Dipper are up.  
> Edit: Added the full text of the note, not sure why I didn't before.
> 
> They're already up on my DeviantArt if you're interested.  
> https://www.deviantart.com/jeweloftheworld
> 
> I also have a Tumblr I may or may not post updates on.  
> https://www.tumblr.com/blog/thejeweloftheworld


End file.
